Forest stands from high elevation afforestation in the Austrian Alps - past, present and future at a glance

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Mountain forests protect people, infrastructure and resources from natural hazards including snow avalanches, floods, debris flows and rockfalls. For such natural hazards the probability of occurrence and magnitude is essentially coupled to the protective effects of vegetation - especially in forested landscapes. In the 50s of the last century after two years of catastrophic avalanche events, the Austrian Forest-Technical Service for Torrent and
Avalanche Control (WLV) acknowledged the importance of forest stands as active mitigation measurements against natural hazards and started with an extensive high- elevation afforestation campaign throughout the Austrian Alps. Recently, about 30% of the forested area of Austria has a major control function on avalanches, runoff, but also on
erosion and rockfall. From a global perspective, high-elevation afforestation is a typical nature-based solution for managing natural hazards and resulting risks. Their advantages may include low environmental impacts, multiple benefits due to the ecosystem-based approach, and relatively low investment costs and higher adaptability to changing conditions. This contribution is intended to recall the theoretical and practical effort that was put into reforestation at high altitudes (mainly situated within the timberline ecotone, acting as absolute limits for the existence of upright trees so far) and tries to make the future challenges of forest stands from high elevation afforestation tangible.
Keywords: high-elevation afforestation, Austrian Alps, protective forest